It's Always Been You

Chapter 11

"Sorry about my dad, Ms. Flores."

Ariana's fourth-period American government class settled in the library, taking up the tables on the farthest side, near the nonfiction section.

"You apologized yesterday, Asher. It's alright. He was just concerned. Sorry, you can't play today."

Asher shrugged. "It's on me. I slacked off and now I need to focus."

"That's right." She urged him to sit down. "Alright. Settle in and quiet down everyone. Today's reading and discussion should help prepare for our test on Monday."

# # #

"Mr. Suzuki?"

Ben's breath hitched in his throat as he looked away from the window separating the computer lab from the rest of the library. "Yes?"

Ruby, one of the freshmen students in his class stood before him. "Could you check my thesis statement?" She handed him a crinkled piece of notebook paper.

He picked up his pen and read the thesis statement quietly, marking some words with his pen. "Good, Ruby. You could use some stronger words here, but it's good."

"Thanks."

Ben looked back down at the work set out before him, trying to figure out what he was doing before he got distracted.

Laughter and a round of applause grabbed his attention. He looked over at Ariana and her class of seniors.

It was funny to see her standing beside some of them when many of her students stood way taller than her.

A dark-haired man popped his head into the computer lab. Andrew. He waved at Ben and walked over to his makeshift desk.

"Can I help you?" Ben asked.

Andrew grinned. "Yes. I'm here with some of my students and I was wondering if you have any suggestions from that section over there." Andrew pointed.

Ben followed his line of sight and groaned when it landed on Ariana and her class. Ben turned to Andrew and glared.

Andrew shrugged, feigning innocence. "I don't know. I thought maybe you'd know since you've been staring in that direction for as long as I've been here."

"Don't you have a class to teach?"

"I do, actually. I'll leave you to gawk. But, Ben, really. Keep track of how long you stare or people, kids," he coughed, "are bound to notice."

# # #

Thankfully, no one else noticed, and thankfully, she wasn't in the library for any of her other classes. He was free from her presence and wasn't going to be on the end of one of her rants.

He gathered his folders and documents and exited the administration building. The English department had an afternoon meeting and he was one of the last to leave.

He picked up his pace. Why didn't he bring his stuff to the meeting? He could've gone straight home from there. Now, he had to go back to his classroom and get his things.

He passed the science and math building and was about to enter the alcove of trees when he slowed to a stop. Was someone calling him?

He looked around. Then he saw a tall brown-skinned person come around the art building.

"Ben!" Harper jogged to him out of breath. "You heard me. That's awesome," she said between breaths.

"Yeah? What is it? Why were you running?"